The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community Page: 33
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The web of life and the 'balance of nature'
species which might otherwise become extinct. A world covered with
monocultures of agricultural crops will be a depauperate world even if
it proves to be still sustainable.
The web of life and the 'balance of nature'
Species that manage to survive on the earth today are those which have
evolved (and continue to evolve) adaptations that enable them to
survive and multiply despite checks to increase. Such adaptations may
involve appropriate relationships to the environment including adap-
tations to other species on which they depend. Darwin (1859, p. 73)
referred to plants and animals as being 'bound together by a web of
complex relations'. Here is Darwin's descriptive account partly based
on a paper by a Mr Newman of I85o and in part upon his own
observations.
From experiments which I have tried, I have found that the visits of
bees, if not indispensable, are at least highly beneficial to the ferti-
lisation of our clovers; but humble-bees alone visit the common red
clover (Trifolium pratense), as other bees cannot reach the nectar.
Hence I have very little doubt, that if the whole genus of humble-
bees became extinct or very rare in England, the heartsease and red
clover would become very rare, or wholly disappear. The number of
humble-bees in any district depends in a great degree on the number
of field-mice, which destroy their combs and nests; and Mr H.
Newman, who has long attended to the habits of humble-bees
believes that 'more than two-thirds of them are thus destroyed all
over England'. Now the number of mice is largely dependent, as
every one knows, on the number of cats; and Mr Newman says:
'Near villages and small towns I have found the nests of humble-
bees more numerous than elsewhere, which I attribute to the
number of cats that destroy the mice.' Hence it is quite credible that
the presence of a feline animal in large numbers in a district might
determine, through the intervention first of mice and then of bees,
the frequency of certain flowers in that district! (Darwin, 1859,
PP. 73-4).
Darwin traced out the web of relations between the humble-bee and
other species and other components of its environment. Alter one
component and the effects can be far reaching.
It was the fate of Darwin's clear statement about humble-bees that it
became elaborated in the telling. The cats were said to belong to33
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Birch, Charles & Cobb, John B., Jr. The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community, book, 1990; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52174/m1/45/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Center For Environmental Philosophy.